UK Nature and Environment

Every year, an estimated 90 million birds navigate the East Atlantic Flyway, an aerial superhighway stretching from the Arctic circle – spanning Siberia, Canada, and Alaska – down the coast of Western Europe to sites as far south as South Africa.

Each summer as the snow melts, the Arctic becomes a surprisingly fertile breeding ground that attracts around 200 species – some 300 to 500 million individual birds. But as the Arctic winter takes hold once more, these birds begin a southward migration, navigating along the world’s coastlines to reach warmer winter feeding areas. ‘There are nine flyways around the world,’ says Julianne Evans, head of ecology at the RSPB. ‘The East Atlantic Flyway funnels the birds directly north of us down through Iceland and the Scandinavia, through our estuaries and down to Western Europe and Africa.’